AVELINO MESA - COLOMBIA - WASHED

Avelino Mesa’s farm is truly a family run operation. He produces only 700kg of coffee per year, on his 1ha patch of land in the hills of La Linda. He and his family pick the coffee themselves, employing no additional labour. They ensure that they are picking only the ripest fruit to maximise value at every subsequent stage. He then pulps his coffee in stages.

At the end of each day, he pulps his pick, the following day he adds freshly picked and puled coffee to the previous day's pulped coffee and does this until the first day's pick has fermented for a total of 96 hours. Some farmers call this the coffee cake or coffee layer process. This adds to the unique flavour profile.

Avelino wants coffee to be a sustainable and meaningful form of income for his son. Therefore, coffee has to be a profitable enterprise for his family and something his son can inherit. The value-added steps carried out during the processing of the coffee ensure it reaches its maximum flavor potential, which ultimately means they receive the maximum price possible. The rural regions do not offer many employment prospects for children of coffee producers, meaning they leave the land and seek opportunities in towns or cities (in which there is no guarantee of employment), and this contributes to the ever-aging population of Colombian coffee farmers. 1ha of land is not much to make a livelihood from and the specialty coffee market is very important to Avelino and his family to ensure they receive as much value as possible from their crop.

This harvest Avelino received 100% above the average cost of production for his coffee, meaning 100% gross profit. This is about 3.5x (350%) above the average C market price that producers have been able to sell their coffee for in the last 5 years.